I know next to nothing about how satellites work myself, but have wondered at how Dish Network etc. can control my individual TV (that I pulled the plug on quite some time ago) from a satellite so far, far away. It must be set up somehow to direct a wave very narrowly or I would think that a person could pick up random waves. Also, I wonder how one can order movies and things. I can understand a wave being directed at me, but does the little satellite on the garage throw rays back at it, or is the info all in the box and regulated through it somehow? To think that it can control thousands and thousands of TVs from way up there is amazing. Also, do those large satellites out in the country have to have subscriptions in order to get their TVs to come in or are they large enough and made to simply pull in waves without subscriptions somehow? Does Dish Network etc. have rights to the waves and is there such a thing as pirating them? I would like some of the large, gaping spaces in my knowledge filled in a little, just for personal satisfaction. I suppose my questions seem moronic to the knowledgeable about satellites, but there is the old adage that no question is a stupid question.
There is, but it has been proven wrong so many times it shouldn't be relied upon. Mostly proven wrong when the asker fails to listen in the first place. There are other examples, this thread being one of them. The information sought may not be 'stupid', but the framing of the question seeking that knowledge frequently is stupid. I have taught in a military environment, and your adage is almost always used as boilerplate at the beginning of a course of instruction along with it's cousin "the only stupid question is the one unasked'. Yet in a very short time, these adages prove to be false as the ability of students to frame stupid questions continues unabated.